Blood
by Engraved-Angel
Summary: There was blood everywhere, coating everything in a thick layer of red. Chains rattled against the wall, shouts of angry protest. A sword was drawn, metal scraping on the scabbard. Two strokes, glinting in the light, more red splashed onto the walls. TBC
1. Chapter 1

**Angel: Heya everyone! Yes, I know I haven't gotten up the other chapters of my stories as I promised, but here's a one-shot for you to enjoy. This is #17 in a series challenge I'm participating in.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in here besides for my characters, Mystle and Rutham. Everything else belongs to someone else.**

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There was blood everywhere, coating everything in a thick layer of red. Chains rattled against the wall, shouts of angry protest. A sword was drawn, metal scraping on the scabbard. Two strokes, glinting in the light, more red splashed onto the walls. A scream slowly gurgled into nothing, and cackling started to echo off the walls.

"No one can get out, no one can stop me, they might as well all die. Cause I'll only kill them, slower than ever, it'll save it from the pain." A voice sang to the tune of "Go Eat Worms". It kept humming as it sharpened its sword, making up words as it went along.

A demon slid inside the room, ruby red eyes shining in the dark. Even Hiei had to wrinkle his nose in disgust. This one room smelled worse than the worst part of the Makai. He looked around; thinking at first there was nothing there. But then he saw movement in a far corner, and the faint tinkling of chains echoed as the young girl moved around.

Gray eyes peeked out from under brown hair, and a whimpering escaped her throat. The demon was approaching her, singing aloud again. She scooted back, pressing her back completely against the sticky wall. "Please, p-please don't hurt me," She whimpered, ducking her head down.

Hiei's lip curled, she looked pathetic like that. Why didn't she fight back against the demon? That was when he saw the injuries; the strips of missing skin, the inch deep cuts, and her tail which was broken in two places. Festering, all of it into big red angry wounds.

She was chained hand and foot, the chains connected to the wall. So that was why she didn't retaliate, she had no way and no will. He spotted the demon holding the sword to the flesh on her arm. Pulling it back, the red liquid flowed freely down her grit covered skin.

Hiei frowned, but she uttered no sound of pain. She only shut her eyes and he could see her teeth digging into her bottom lip. As soon as the demon disappeared she opened her eyes, looking down at her wound. The fire demon was startled to notice there were no tears in her eyes. They were dry and filled only with regret. She dropped her head to her knees and started to hum in a shaky tone.

He raised an eyebrow and stayed in the shadows as her humming turned to soft singing.

"Stay low / soft, dark and dreamless / far beneath my nightmares and loneliness / and hat me, for breathing without you / I don't want to feel anymore for you / grieving for you / I'm not grieving for you / nothing real love can't undo / and though I may have lost my way / all paths lead straight to you / I long to be like you / lie cold in the ground like y-"

She cried sharply as a knife dug into her arm.

"Sssussshh now, Myssstle deary. The othersss are trying to sssleep." The demon from before purred.

"What others, Rutham?" She whispered, pulling the knife from the wound. "You killed them all and you won't even let their spirits free." She somehow pushed herself to her feet, her legs quivering from their lack of use in however long since she'd been here.

The demon growled and grabbed her by the neck, breaking the chains that held her so tightly. "Hussshh or I will dessstroy you."

"Do it then you bastard!" She choked out, still no tears or fear showing in her eyes. "Kill me like you killed everyone else!"

His eyes widened, never had the fire demon thought that the girl had a will and just wasn't using it. He watched as the demon pinned her against the wall, hissing and sputtering things in a language he didn't understand. AS it pulled out it's sword to kill her, he moved, pulling his katana from its case and blocking the attack. The ringing of metal against metal echoes for about a minute before getting absorbed into the blood painted walls.

The demon screeched at him and broke the block, dropping the girl to the ground and lunging at him. He back stepped and then moved behind the demon, going to stab it but his sword wouldn't pierce the skin. Rutham cackled and brushed the attack away. "Sssilly Forbidden. My ssskin cannot be broken by common metal," It said.

Hiei looked stunned and he growled, blocking the attacks the demon threw at him. Unless he actually used his abilities there was no way he could kill it. He pushed an attack back and parried it, slamming his elbow into the demon's throat and leaving it gasping for breath. He knocked the sword away from it and kicked it away.

"Foolissshh thing to do, sssmall one," It hissed and then the fire demon found himself dangling above the ground. Suddenly it gurgled and pitched forward, and Hiei wiggled loose and moved to the side just as it fell. Sticking out of its back was its own sword, and standing there was the girl with no expression.

Just as he was starting to stand up, she turned and shoved him down hurriedly. She was starting to go down when the body exploded, the force causing him to slide and her to fly. He could hear the walls crumbling and he coughed, waiting for the dust to clear. When it did he stared at what had become of the dungeon.

It wasn't there… it had literally been obliterated. He turned, looking for the girl. He spotted her against what was left of the wall, a gaping hole in her stomach and a chunk missing from her left leg. Even as she was dying she was still smiling, and her noticed then the four spirits that were hovering around her.

She was whispering something to them, and they were all shaking their heads. He heard a voice next to his ear. "Take care of her, Forbidden. Take care of my daughter. Make sure she lives."

The fire demon spun around to see who had spoken to him, and saw no one. Turning around again, he saw the girl pitch forward and he moved just fast enough to catch her. He frowned slightly and shook her (literally) out of her half asleep state. "Onna, stay awake. You sleep now, you're not waking back up," He said harshly.

He raised his eyebrows as she laughed weakly. "Not waking up sounds nice though. No more worry, no more pain…" She trailed off and her eyes closed again.

He growled and pulled out the communicator. As Koenma picked up he glared at the toddler. "If you want your little project demon to survive, I suggest you get us the hell out of here."

There was silence on the other end, and then a portal appeared in front of them. He lifted her up and walked through, breathing though his mouth. He didn't want to smell the blood, though tasting it wasn't much better. He wrinkled his nose and then they were through and the girl was taken from him, whisked away to the infirmary.

"Hiei…"

He turned to the voice and just looked at the fox.

"You might want to wash up. You're covered in blood head to foot."

Hiei snorted and shook his head. "It's hard no tot be, fox. That entire room was painted with blood."

"No, Hiei, that's not what I meant. You're covered in the girl's blood," Kurama said with a sympathetic look towards the hospital doors.

He looked down at himself and his chest tightened, then he sneered slightly. Before Kurama had turned back around he was gone, going to his room. He suddenly felt unclean, like having her blood on him was wrong.

He disappeared into the bathroom, peeling of his shirt and dropping it on the floor. His shirt had been soaked through, and he could tell that most of it was the girl's.

Mystle's…

He growled and looked at his chest, splashed in red. He snarled and started the water of the shower. As he climbed in and let the water rain down on him, he closed his eyes.

Why was he chosen to keep her alive? Was it because he had been the only one there? Or was it for some unknown reason?

He growled and slammed his fist against the wall. There were so many damn questions rattling around in his mind and no answers.

Unbidden his mind went back to the hell hole the woman had been held in, to when the explosion had gone off. He could see now, the girl flying back, a spike slamming into her stomach. Copper smelling red liquid pouring from the wound as she pulled it out, and then falling back against the wall.

He could feel his chest contract and he slid down the shower wall.

All he could see in his mind was blood…

Gallons and quarts of blood…

And all of it coming out of those he considered part of his pack… and the new girl.

Blood, lifeless eyes…

And unending silent screams.

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**A/N: This probably isn't as good as I thought it would be T-T But I wanted feedback on it besides from my friends xD**


	2. Chapter 2

The light filtering in through the cover of her eyelids was strong, bright enough to still hurt her closed eyes. The wolf demon made a quiet sound, attempting to turn her head slightly and finding her self unable to. In an attempt to figure out just where she was, she slowly let her eyes flicker open, only to hiss in pain as the light shocked her system and caused a headache to instantly start pounding behind her eyes. Closing her eyes quickly to block out the offending brightness, she was mildly surprised when the red color of her eyelids darkened with the presence of a shadow.

"Mystle?"

The sound of her name made her open her eyes again, however against her will it might have been. A figure, male she assumed, stood over her. She blinked a few times, focusing her eyes enough to see the brown hair that hung over chocolate eyes in bangs that feathered out, along with Jr. imprinted on his forehead. She furrowed her brows as he repeated her name, noting the blue pacifier that bobbed up and down with each syllable.

"Mystle, are you conscious?" the man asked, his red cloak/scarf item hung over his shoulder and the edge pooled on her blankets, practically begging to be batted at. And so she did. Mystle moved one hand, lightly tapping the red article of clothing before looking back up at the man speaking to her. He looked relieved. "Good, you're awake. I was afraid you were brain dead with your eyes open," he said.

She managed a soft chuckle. "I'm harder to get rid of than that," she murmured, "that's what Father always said." She couldn't quite remember what had happened that led her to be in this room, and she still was no closer to figuring out where she was. "Excuse me though. You know my name but I haven't the slightest clue as to who you are," she said, her brows furrowing in her confusion again.

The man looked amused for a moment. "I'm Koenma, son of King Enma and currently in charge of Spirit World," he said. "Do you remember what happened to you? Or where you are?"

"Well… I must be in Spirit World since the prince is here, and I can't be dead since I'm in pain," she reasoned, turning her head the small bit she could. "But I don't know where exactly, and I can't remember what happened…"

"Yes, you are in Spirit World, and you aren't dead. You're in the Spirit World infirmary right now. You were the prisoner of a sick demon named Rutham, and he tortured you and your family in the depths of his dungeon," he said. He watched as the demon's expressive gray eyes darkened considerably as the memories came back. "You remember now don't you?" he questioned. He got the barest of nods as an answer and was about to say something when her quiet voice cut through him.

"Who was that man that saved me?"

He paused, surprised that the first thing she would ask was about Hiei. "Don't you want to know what happened to your family?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I already know. They're all dead, I saw Rutham kill them. He killed my little brother right before that man showed up. Now who is he?"

Koenma sighed softly. "That was Hiei, one of my spirit detectives. He was assigned the mission to save you and was lucky that you knew how kill Rutham otherwise you both would've been dead."

She nodded her head faintly. "So he's still alive, good," she murmured, closing her eyes again. "Can I sleep more now?"

The demigod was going to reply when he saw the evening of her breath and chuckled slightly, she had fallen asleep before he could even start to answer her. "Sleep well little wolf pup, you'll need your rest for what's coming up." With that, he walked out of the room and wandered back to his office. He was surprised when he was flagged down by his spirit detectives, coming over to him. "Yes?"

Yusuke crossed his arms, glaring at his "employer" of sorts. "What exactly is going on with that girl in there? Short stuff got sent on a special mission to rescue her, and now she's even got _you_ checking in on her. How come she's so special, baby breath? Huh?"

Koenma glared at him in return. "It would be a nice change in terms if you would refrain from calling me 'baby breath', Yusuke," he said, almost haughtily as he started back towards his office once more.

"I do believe you owe us an explanation, Koenma," the smooth voice of Kurama cut through the seething silence. "As it turns out, we more than likely will be helping with the girl so we should at least have some knowledge as to why she is so important."

The demigod in teenage form sighed softly and nodded his head. "I suppose I do owe you an explanation, perhaps to Hiei the most. Very well, follow me to my office," he said, and resumed his walking. As he walked, he mulled over just how much he could tell them about Mystle and just what part she had to play in the future.

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_Hey guys, Angel here. I just want to apologize for not getting anything up, but I'm back at work on my stories at last. So, here's a short update to Blood. (Finally! A second chapter!)_

_I'm aware that I don't usually ask for reviews, but if you could please drop me a review and/or a message it'll make my poor high school ridden day. ^^ So yeah. Also, could you guys possibly help me decide on an actual day to keep for updates on this story? I figure that way, I might actually update more often. heheh… yeah, here's hoping._

_So, I'll see you, my lovely readers, on my next update, which should hopefully be soon! Ja ne._

_~Angel_


	3. Chapter 3

Koenma sat in his office chair, quite comfortable there now that he wasn't so worried about Mystle not waking up. Of course, she had been in the infirmary for two weeks before she _had_ woken up, but he wasn't too worried over that factor. After all, the girl had been badly hurt when she had arrived. The young ruler glanced up from beneath his bangs at the spirit detectives standing in his office. He owed them an explanation on just what was going on with Mystle, but he found himself at a loss of where to start.

Yusuke was tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. "Well? Cough it up already, Koenma. Some of us have better things to do than sit around all day waiting for you!" he snapped.

Kuwabara rolled his eyes. "Yeah right, Urameshi, like you have anything better to do."

"Niether do you, Kuwabara!"

Koenma put up a hand, the other rubbing at his brow as he felt the beginning of a head ache already. "Please, just sit down and I'll attempt to explain. Mystle's story of how she's important is a confusing one," he said, folding his hands together and watching the boys. He noticed that Hiei simply leaned against a wall like he usually would, while Kurama took the seat proffered and crossed his legs. Yusuke and Kuwabara just stood there, looking at him expectantly. He sighed quietly and closed his eyes, still pondering on where to begin.

"Mystle is… a special case, as I'm sure you all have figured out by now. Not by means that you have discovered before. She's not a demon hiding in a human body, or a half breed, nor a 'forbidden' of any sort. She is however, a wolf demon of a pack that has had bad luck for a very very long time. We don't know what is it about her, not even her father knew, but she's managed to change things that were set in stone. We never knew she was going to be born, and before she was, we were more than certain that her pack was going to die because of the bad luck they were having. Then she came along and suddenly her pack started to prosper again. The pups no longer died, and they could find the prey they needed to survive. Those in the pack called her their 'good luck charm'.

"Now, we thought this was just coincidence and let it pass. But then her entire family went missing, due to Rutham, and the pack started to fall apart again. Destiny set on it's correct path once more. We had been keeping an eye on Rutham, due to the amount of demons he had been killing, and then the same day he took Mystle, he disappeared from our radars. Whether she had meant to or not, it seems that her luck had rubbed off on him as well, causing him to elude our forces. He danced away from us for eight years, that's how long it took him to finish killing her family members. He took two years to focus entirely on one person and literally carve them to death.

"We had only caught wind of Rutham by accident, and that was when we sent you, Hiei. For some reason, Mystle's 'luck' was dying out and that let us find her. Now, however, we have to run tests on her, and when she's back on her feet then I can finish telling you just what is going on. For now though, it seems that Mystle is a wolf demon with extra luck that she shares with anyone she meets whether she means to or not."

Kurama had his brows furrowed as he processed the information that Koenma had just given them. "And you have no idea what is causing this… 'luck' of hers?"

The child ruler shook his head. "No. We can't find mention of it anywhere in our archives either," he responded.

The fox incarnate nodded his head and went back to pondering it over.

Kuwabara tipped his head though, beady dark brown eyes examining Koenma closely. "Say now… just what sorta tests are ya gonna run on her?" he questioned.

"Blood tests, DNA, and possibly full body scans to figure out what it is in her that makes her do this."

The teen blinked slowly. "So, every day medical things. Nothing scary or anything that could harm her, right?"

"Of course not, I owe that much to her father at least."

Yusuke frowned, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "So who is this girl's father anyway? He some big hotshot or something that got huge in demon world?"

"You could say that. Mystle's father, actually, was an assistant to the doctor you faced in the Dark Tournament. Needless to say really, he cut out once he realized what the doctor was doing. He was known, however, for his research pertaining to the uncovering of the tape Sensui was after. He found the tape and gave it to Spirit World to protect because he thought it was a danger to everyone."

"So her dad was a doctor, her mum was a stay at home wolf, her siblings were normal, and she had uncontrollable good luck that she shared with everyone except her family," Yusuke summed, looking bored. "She doesn't sound like anything special."

Koenma shook his head slowly. "So much to learn, Yusuke. It doesn't matter, however, if she can't manage to control her luck. Father will more than likely sign off on her execution because of her unknowingly helping Rutham escape us for eight years."

"Hey, wait up a sec, that just ain't right. You can't kill a girl that didn't do anything!" Kuwabara argued, looking ready to fight for that opinion.

Koenma, however, stopped him before he could. "I know, and I agree with you there, Kuwabara. Which is why she needs to be trained, and she'll need every one's help to do that."

"Does she have control over any element?" Kurama asked.

"She has faint control over lightning, but that's it. If trained correctly, it could be nurtured into a much stronger power, but she usually prefers hand to hand when she's fighting, or to use a wooden or metal stave. She finds that using your powers should be reserved for when you absolutely need them, so that you don't waste you're strength," Koenma said.

"So she was taken at nine years old. That was seriously enough time for her to figure out that she preferred hand to hand to everything else?" Yusuke asked incredulously.

Koenma nodded. "Yes. Which is where you will be handy for training her. Her technique is good, but needs work. As for her staff training, Kurama, she'll be looking to you. You can create many weapons with your plants, and that diversity will help her. Kuwabara, she'll need your help with her energy and sensing everything around her. Hiei, you'll need to train her to be faster. If what I feel is going to happen, does, she'll need each of these talents just to live through it."

Most of the boys looked excited to help Mystle, with the exception of Hiei because he never looked excited for anything, and were nodding in agreement. The fire demon looked annoyed at being given the task of "baby sitting" the wolf while she was in training. After all, most people that Koenma sent to be trained by them had only _needed_ to be baby sat.

The ruler of Spirit World looked at Hiei and fixed him with a stern gaze. "Hiei, you _will_ help her, or so help me I will extend your punishment."

The emiko scoffed. "I'm done with my punishment, I served my time and did what you asked," he droned, looking uninterested now.

"True, you did, but I still have plenty of things that haven't been wiped from the booklet yet. How'd you like to be on probation again, Hiei?"

Hiei fell silent, seething at how easily Koenma played them like they were nothing but dolls. He hadn't done anything that hadn't already warranted him as doing anything "bad", though it did depend on your definition, recently. Yet he knew that he did have things on his file that Koenma could access and would use freely, so he chose to shut up and just listen.

Koenma sighed softly and looked at the stacks of paper to the side of his desk. "Alright, now all of you, go home and get some sleep. I have work to do."

No one argued or blinked twice before they were either out the door or simply gone.

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_Hello peeps, Angel here. So, I plotted out my schedule, and it turns out that Thursday is going to be my update day for this story. The chapters should get longer since I'll have more time to work on them, but it depends with my other two stories. ^^ Alright, so, I'll see you all next Thursday for this story. See ya!_

_~Angel_


	4. Chapter 4

The doctor scanned over the final blood result, nodding his head absently as the young wolf demoness watched him with wary eyes. Nodding his head a final time, he looked up and smiled comfortingly at Mystle. "Your results are all clean, nothing came back, which means you're free to go. Though Koenma-sama won't be very happy that there's no immediate cause for..." He trailed off, shaking his head slightly before smiling at her again.

She blinked her head at that. "No immediate cause for what sir?" she asked, one ear cocking towards him in curiosity.

"Oh, nothing you have to worry yourself about right now, Mystle. Right now you should go out and enjoy your freedom. I think your training starts today," he said.

She perked up at that. "Training? I wasn't aware I would be training with anyone," she said, furrowing her brows.

"Well ya better get used to it, Wolfie, cause I'm here to pick you up for training," a gruffer teenage voice said from the doorway.

One ear swiveled towards the voice before slate gray eyes follows suit, the girl's head tilting to the side again. "And you are...?"

"Urameshi, Yusuke! I'm the Spirit Detective currently," he said, smirking in his cockiness.

She arched a brow before chuckling. "Alright, shall I call you Yusuke then? I'm Mystle, but I'm certain Koenma-sama has already told you that," she said.

"Yeah yeah, let's just get goin' Wolfie, I have things I need to do. Like kick Kuwabara's ass at Mortal Combat again," he said, a glint coming to his eyes at the thought.

Mystle shook her head lightly, standing up and walking over to him. "Lead the way," she said, gesturing with her hand before waving farewell to the doctor and then starting to follow the Spirit Detective to where ever it was he was taking her. A part of her wondered if she should be leery of him, but her instincts said he was okay to trust, so she was going with them. "Yusuke-san? Where exactly are we going?"

"To Grandma's. You'll be staying there while you're training and baby breath has his eye on you. I don't know why you're so special, but hey, I'm just here to do my job," he said with a shrug to his shoulders.

She chuckled slightly. "If you say so Yusuke-san," she said softly.

"No san. Just Yusuke," he said gruffly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

She only smiled before nodding, taking that time to look around. From what she could tell, the Reikai palace was huge and simply bustling with activity. She watched ogres moving around, stacks of papers balanced precariously in their arms and just barely peering around them to watch where they were going. _I'm surprised that none of them have run into each other yet. It must come from centuries of practice,_ she thought, watching them with a touch of amusement now as they yelled across the room to each other.

Then everything slanted and she was suddenly on her behind staring up at blue sky and a long set of stairs. She blinked, suddenly disoriented at the change of location. Then the pain hit her from landing on her still mending tail, causing her to growl and scramble to her feet, grabbing her tail and checking it over. "Ow ow ow," she ground out, biting her inner cheek and trying to ignore the sharp pain.

Laughter reached her ears, making them twitch and she looked up, seeing Yusuke half way up the steps. "Come on Wolfie! Grandma is waiting and I have a game to win!" he called.

She scowled and started up the steps, ears pinned to the back of her head in her distaste. Shortly after she watched as Yusuke topped the steps and heard the brawl happening before she came upon it. Chest heaving from jogging the last fifty steps, she couldn't help the chuckle that slipped out from the sight of the raven haired boy pinning a carrot top to the ground and almost literally punching the lights out of him. He was yelling something that she couldn't make out, but overall it made her ears lie flat again.

A short woman with faded pink hair walked over and kicked Yusuke off of the carrot top. "Dimwit, the girl is here. Stop messing around and get Kuwabara to take her out for her training."

Yusuke shot to his feet, growling. "Dammit Grandma that hurt!"

The carrot top, Kuwabara she assumed, also got to his feet. "Neh? Mystle's here? Where?"

The wolf girl chuckled slightly. "You should try looking before asking, Kuwabara-san," she said softly, watching him through eyes filled with curiosity. She fought back a smile as he jumped, spinning in her direction with wide eyes, of which she noticed the color were so dark a blue they looked black. "It's nice to meet you," she chirped, lightly bowing before straightening up.

Kuwabara blinked again before hastening to bow as well. "Ah, nice to meet ya too, Mystle," he said before looking at Genkai. "Shouldn't we let her get settled in before training starts?" he asked, furrowing his brows in his confusion.

Genkai sighed slightly and shook her head. "No. She doesn't have anything with her, and her room is already prepared, which means her training starts now," she said. "Now go." The last part was strictly said, the firm tone letting it be known that there would be no room for questions or arguing.

The orange-haired boy nodded quickly before looking at Mystle. "Well, follow me then pretty lady," he said, grinning at her.

She blinked at the pet name before shrugging it off, tail lightly wagging at the thought of being able to train again. The wolf demoness followed behind him, noting how they circled around the main building.

"We're gonna work on spiritual awareness and stuff like that, alright?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her.

A ear flickered towards him as she nodded, though her gaze was on the scenery. "Kuwabara-san, who does the gardening at the temple?" she asked, flicking her eyes towards him briefly before looking back towards the small flower bed that held an array of flowers she didn't know the name of.

"Eh? Oh, Kurama and my lovely Yukina work on the gardens here," he said, stars practically growing in his eyes at the thought of the ice maiden.

"Yukina is your intended?" she asked, focusing her gaze back on him as her ears perked up. "I thought humans didn't have intendeds."

"Inten-wha?" Kuwabara asked, looking at her.

"Intendeds, the one you plan to mate or hand-fast with in the future," she responded, looking just as confused as him.

"Oh! We- ah... Humans don't... I don't think anyway... we have girlfriends or boyfriends, and fiance's..." he said. "Er, you're better off askin' Kurama about that stuff. I'm not good at explaining human things to demons."

She chuckled and nodded. "I understand just fine. Now... where exactly are we training?"

At this she watched the human freeze and take a glance around before jogging over to section of the yard, she noticed it was close to a forest that had a demonic feel around it, that was obviously set aside for cases such as this. "Right here!" he said, grinning broadly.

A small smile from the wolf girl was what he got in reply, and she followed to the makeshift ring, stepping over the cord that marked the boundaries. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but what exactly is your training style?" she asked, tipping her head slightly.

"Well, ya know how to get to your energy, righ'?" he asked. At her nod he continued. "Well, I'm going to hide in the forest, and you have to use your energy to search for mine."

She stepped forward, ears perked up in her interest. Leaning forward, she sniffed him - noting how he smelled of oranges and... was that a cat? - and then leaned back again, flaring her energy briefly to get a feel for his, again it had an orange feel to it. "Okay, I'm ready," she said, smiling at him. She noted the disgruntled look on his face, chuckling just faintly as she assumed it was from her sniffing him. Perhaps she should have explained that she didn't see auras, she smelled them. He probably wouldn't have been giving her a funny look had she done that. Oh well, what's done was done.

She watched then as he shrugged it off and took off into the forest, yelling behind him not to follow for ten minutes. Amusement briefly flared through her and she settled back on her heels, watching the forest. Her ears were pricked up, listening to the sounds around her and swiveling towards every new thing she heard. Footsteps sounded behind her and she stiffened, one ear swiveling back as she growled lowly, warning whoever was creeping up on her.

"Relax girl, it's me," came the gruff voice of Yusuke's master.

Mystle smelled the smoke before she turned, spying the item in Genkai's hand and looking confused by it for a minute. Sniffing again, she wrinkled her nose at the acrid scent. "What _is_ that thing?" she asked, her ears laying flat on her head.

Genkai tipped her head. "It's a cigarette. Now ignore me and focus on your training, girl," she said, looking out into the forest.

Her ears were still pinned back on her head and she managed to force herself into ignoring her, staring into the woods. Waiting was getting annoying, she wanted to play now. Not to mention get away from the stench of that... cigarette... that's what Yusuke's mentor called it anyway. It was hurting her nose, which meant it would be harder for her to find Kuwabara. Or maybe that was Yusuke's mentor's entire plan...

Mystle gave herself a mental shake. _Concentrate, you need to find Kuwabara-san,_ she thought, focusing herself again. Had it been ten minutes yet? She couldn't tell. Perhaps she should just start sniffing him out now? With her nose impaired by the cigarette smoke, it would take her a few minutes to even pick up on his aura.

Taking half a step, she sniffed the air lightly and only got a lung full of smoke. She growled, annoyed at the interference. _Fine, can't sniff his aura out, I'll just feel for him,_ she thought, spreading out her awareness. There was nothing... Her confusion was obvious from the way one ear was flat and the other was perked up, she'd always been able to feel people out when she couldn't sniff them out.

"He's out of your range," Genkai stated, her tone somewhat bored. Letting out a stream of smoke, she blew it in the wolf's direction. "You obviously don't have a wide enough range for it, so work on spreading your power out further to search for him."

Mystle's other ear laid flat against her head and she shot the older woman an annoyed look. She stepped into the forest then, ignoring Genkai. Yet she did as she said, forcing her awareness to spread out farther. There. It was just a flicker, but she caught his aura. She veered directions, heading towards it and feeling the aura strengthen as it came back within her natural boundaries. She kept her pace slow, not wanting to wear herself out before she could even find him.

Suddenly the orange feeling aura that was Kuwabara disappeared, leaving a very disgruntled wolf standing dumb struck in the middle of the woods wondering where it went. She stretched her awareness again, feeling him just on the edges of how far she could go. He had moved again, which meant he was testing her boundaries. _Damn, she was right. I do need to broaden them. I guess eight years of inactivity cut my powers more than I realized, _she thought, furrowing her brow.

Feeling the aura start to move out of range again, she started running to catch him. She was _not_ letting him get out of her range again. She could feel the aura getting closer before it suddenly disappeared again, and she stretched her awareness even further. She was straining though, feeling the extra length taking it's toll on her mentally. With a burst of speed – she wasn't quite certain where it had come from – she managed to keep him inside her boundaries and after a few more minutes, found him. She came to a stop, bending over slightly with her hands on her knees and panting slightly. Now she was tired from running and from stretching herself to her limits.

As he stepped up to her side, she forced herself to straighten up. Kuwabara looked pleased. "That didn't take you as long as I thought it would. Good job. And now that I know your limit, we can work on pushing you past it!"

She gave him a look that could kill. "When did you arrange for Yusuke's mentor to blow smoke at me so I couldn't smell your aura?" she asked, glaring.

"Eh? Genkai did that?" he asked, looking confused. "That was all her, man- er... girl. I didn't know anythin' about that."

She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Never mind then, Kuwabara-san. Shall we try again? I think I can go a few more times before I pass out," she said, somewhat teasing at the end and then not at the same time.

He chuckled. "I'm going to be goin' outta your range again, Mystle. Are ya ready for that?"

With a roll of her eyes she made a shooing motion. "Just go before I change my mind."

* * *

_Angel: Well would ya look at that, I returned from the dead. Talk about spending a very long time staring at that block with a biiiig white 'W' printed on it. Anyway, here's (finally) chapter four of Blood. Now that my sticky notes are back and I have the entire thing outlined, updates should be evening out without months of breaks in between them. Also, huge shout out to wicked gothic angel for reviewing and being an awesome person. Made my day when she reviewed. ^-^_

_Okay, now, read and review please! Tell me if you liked it, what I can do to fix it, make it better, etc. Anything really. Hard to become a better writer when no one tells me what's wrong... Soo... Angel out!  
_


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